the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, just following up on the comments of my colleague from alaska, he has laid out some very important thoughts regarding the farm bill, regarding the debt ceiling, regarding social security, and i applaud him for coming to the floor and sharing his thoughts with his colleagues and with the american public. mr. president, these are big issues that we're wrestling with here in the u.s. senate. the farm bill is something that was passed in a bipartisan nature through the senate. it is over in the house. it will have to come back through here. we have a proposal from the republican leader put forward this morning that we were ready to vote on and that he objected to himself at the last second. but the debt ceiling is an important issue because it involves paying the bills on the decisions that have already been made and implemented by the u.s. government. it's not about spending more. it's about paying the bills on the spending that's already taken place, and it should be debated